1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile, or to an image forming apparatus such as a multifunction peripheral combining these apparatuses.
2. Related Art
A conventional apparatus forming (printing) an image on a transfer medium (paper sheet) includes a copying machine, a printer, facsimile, or an image forming apparatus such as a multifunction peripheral combining these apparatuses. This type of image forming apparatus is connected with an external device such as a personal computer by a LAN (local area network) or the like, to thereby enable printing of image data sent from the external device to the image forming apparatus. In particular, within a company, a single image forming device is often connected to a plurality of external devices via a LAN, and the users of each of the external devices use the single image forming apparatus in common.
Confidential image data such as business project documents during a planning stage may be included in the image data sent from such an external device to the image forming apparatus. Techniques have been proposed for suitable printing of confidential documents when a single image forming apparatus is used by connection with a plurality of external devices.
For example, an image forming apparatus is known that includes a reception portion that receives image data with a password applied thereto from the external device, a storage portion that stores the received image data, an input portion that inputs a password from a user, and an image forming control portion that forms an image on a transfer medium based on the image data when a password set to image data stored in the storage portion coincides with a password input from the input portion.
However in this type of conventional image forming apparatus, as a result of user error, or when the same password is accidentally set to different image data, there is the risk of loss of confidentiality in relation to the image data in the event that image data that should not be printed is printed as a result of input of a password by a user.
Thus the present invention has the object of providing an image forming apparatus that enables more suitable printing of confidential image data.